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Designing Multimedia - A Visual Guide to Multimedia and Online Graphic Design
by by Lisa Lopuck, Reviewed by Steve Carmeli—NOCCC , Isa714sc@cs.com - April 17, 2001 at 15:22:29:
This book is intended as an introduction for “graphic designers, artists and other creative professionals being asked to design interactive multimedia titles and Web sites.” The book has seven chapters and an appendix.The first chapter is entitled “Multimedia in a Nutshell.” This is an overview of the process of creating a multimedia title or web site. In it, the author breaks down the entire process into two phases: design and development. The topics are: the people, timeline, brainstorming, storyboarding, places, flowcharts, the paper design, the prototype, user testing, final production and debugging. Frankly, I would have expected debugging to come before final production.
The second chapter is entitled The Architecture of Multimedia. The author performs a structural analysis of eight titles in an attempt to demonstrate how “interactive multimedia structures accommodate a variety of information and cultivate many different kinds of user experiences.” The different structures are: hierarchy, linear, multitrack, branching and web structure are encompassed by the term ‘interactive,’ virtual space, modular, constructive, and simulation.
In chapter 3, the author provides a superficial review of authoring tools. Tools are placed on a continuum from very lowest to high-level. The lowest level languages are machine language and assembly language. The mention of these two languages doesn’t belong in a book on multimedia. The next is C and C++. She says a programmer with a computer science background is required for such an endeavor, but I think several programmers, at the least, would be required to create a multimedia title in C/C++. She next postulates a mid-level category of scripting languages. The languages in this category are: ScriptX, Lingo, and HyperTalk. Finally are the high-level authoring tools: Director, Authorware, HyperCard, Apple Media Tool and mTropolis. (It might interest you to know that, according to the author, the very successful program Myst was created in HyperCard.)
Chapter 4 is about user-interface design. The author opens with an interesting observation: “User-interface design is not just about the arrangement and presentation of media on the screen, it is about designing an entire experience for people.” She then provides the three steps to designing an interface:
1 Identify your audience and message.
2 Determine the setting.
3 Create an experience. This is done by using objects from the real world as metaphors. She demonstrates this last principle with two examples: one is a dictionary, the other a game show.
Chapter 5, Graphic Production Tips and Strategies, is the beginning of a change in emphasis from theory to practical matters. “Tools of the Trade” is the first section of the chapter. The author discusses Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Equilibrium’s DeBabelizer to demonstrate some techniques that help the designer produce special effects. She also has a section on hardware. Since this book was written in 1996, there’s no mention of using CD-R/W discs and she mentions SyQuest, which has since gone out of business.
Chapter 6, Understanding Color and Palettes, discusses monitor color and resolution display. It primarily discusses that to get rich detailed color you must create large files, which take a prohibitively long time to download. She also discusses making custom palettes to reduce file size.
Chapter 7, entitled Media Design Showcase demonstrates both user-interface design and visual design from six firms.
The entire book is populated with examples of sophisticated graphics from a variety of firms, though most are the author’s.
The book can’t cover all the details of designing a multimedia title but I think it could’ve gone farther. Still, if you’re looking for an introduction, this isn’t a bad start.
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